Open skies policy cuts air ticket prices by 30 percent

YEREVAN, June 2. / ARKA /. Prices of air tickets to some destinations, especially in Russia, have dropped by 30% after Armenian government’s decision to shift to the open skies policy, economy minister Karen Chshmarityan said today.

Speaking at a parliament discussion on the implementation of last year’s budget he said the open skies policy is expected to boost transportation of air passengers by 20-25 percent.

‘This is a good incentive for the development of tourism in Armenia ", said Chshmarityan.

According to him, in 2013 some 957,240 tourists visited Armenia, a 13.5% increase from 2012.

The minister said the government had released 46 million drams last year to back tourism-relate projects. This year’s figure is 50 million drams.

He said last year’s money was used to finance the participation of Armenian and Karabakh travel agencies in tourism fairs in Madrid, Berlin and London. ($ 1 - 413.49 ) -0 -